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In our Friday night Bible study last week we took a look at Matthew, chapter 8. The whole chapter, and that of chapter 9 as well, are chuck full of miracles. You got your basic calming the storm, casting out demons, raising the dead and 7 healings, including the blind seeing, lepers cleansed, fever gone, paralyzed man walks, and a woman’s bleeding is stopped. Matthew writes in 8:16 that Jesus healed ALL the sick, and that this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah; “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
Nathan and friend
In my last post I wrote about Jill, an ordinary Christian who helps out at the home for needy children in Oaxaca,Mexico. I also mentioned she adopted two children. The youngest is Nathan, whom she began to care for when he was an infant. He is now two years old. When she began to care for him, she was told that he had hepatitis c. His mother was a drug addict. Nobody would ever guess Nathan had this disease. He was the picture of good health. I took to calling him Bruiser because he looked so healthy and was so big. Everything went along fine until about three weeks ago when his eyes started turning yellow. Jill took him to the doctor who had tests done. His liver count was about a hundred times higher than normal, and he was still hepatitis c positive. His liver was failing.
Jill and Nathan got on a plane for the States, and saw a doctor in Chicago who specializes in children’s livers. He took two hep c tests along with a host of other tests. He told Jill to go back to Mexico, as there was not a lot that could be done treatment wise. Nathan was showing some signs of improvement. His body was fighting the virus, and all they could do was to monitor his liver. The doctor told Jill that the hep c tests would not be ready for a week or so, and that he would contact her when they were ready. Back in Mexico, little Nathan continued to improve. So much so that Jill was able to travel to Foundation For His Ministry (FFHM) children’s home in Morelia, to help them with a situation of a little girl who had fallen into a coma, and needed specialized treatment in Mexico City. While in Morelia, a lady came up to Jill and told her that God had healed Nathan. Jill was incredulous and simply said “Thank you.” Shortly thereafter she received the results of the U.S. hep c tests. Nathan had tested negative. His body was clear of the hepatitis c disease.
But, he still has an abnormally high liver count. He was healed of hepatitis c, but there is still a problem with his liver. He didn’t receive the “whole healing”. Why not? When Jesus healed people they received the whole healing immediately. But not Nathan, and perhaps, not you or me. Sometimes we ask God fervently for healing of our aches and pains and diseases, and we are not healed. After beginning my study of Matthew 8 + 9, I injured my back and was in pain. I remembered what the leper said to Jesus, “if you are willing you can heal me.” Jesus said, “I am willing” and healed the man. So I said to Jesus, “if you are willing, you can heal me.” Jesus seemed to say to me, “I am not willing.” My back still hurts. Why would Jesus say to one of his followers, one of his disciples, “I am not willing to heal you”? I think the answer revolves around faith. Faith is mentioned many times in these two chapters of Matthew. Because of a person’s faith, or great faith, or the faith of friends or family members, people are healed. So are we not healed today because we lack faith that Jesus can heal us? Quite the contrary. Any Christian who takes even a cursory look at the gospels sees that Jesus healed anyone and every one who came to him asking for healing. Most Christians have no doubt that Jesus can heal them, which makes the question even more perplexing. The issue is faith, but not faith that God can heal you or me, but faith in the idea that God loves us and wants us to be happy. If we believe that God loves us and wants us to be happy, then, even if we are not healed physically, we will rejoice in God our maker, because in his wisdom and knowledge, he knows what we do not know about our future, namely, that somehow, someway, we will be happier by not being healed immediately of our physical infirmity.
Carmen is a good example of this. I mentioned her in my last post as well. She works in the mission school and is married to Fabian, the administrator. She shared in devotions a couple weeks ago about having bone cancer when she was 15 years old. She said it was a painful time; a scary time; and a time that she wouldn’t trade for the world. Why? Because of what she went through then, helped transform her into the happy person she is now. She told the story of the prognosis – bone cancer in her ribs. Her doctor said they would take out a couple of ribs, and then begin chemotherapy. Sure enough, they took out two ribs, and after recovering from surgery, she went back to the hospital to begin chemo. The doctors prepared her for the treatment, and then discovered that Carmen had not eaten anything, and she needed to eat something, so she went to the cafeteria to get some food. In the meantime, the doctor received some test results back from the Mayo Clinic. A doctor there said that if one more rib was taken out, that might cure her and she wouldn’t have to have chemo. The doctor at the hospital discussed the situation with Carmen and her family, and they decided on removing the third rib. After the rib was removed, she was tested for cancer, was found to be cancer free. She was checked regularly after that for eight years and remained cancer free.
Carmen and Ollie
Ask her if she would change anything about that time in her life and she would tell you, “NO.” Why not? Because during this difficult time in her life, a lot of her friends grew distant and stopped coming around. She said that was a good thing, because girls from her church became her new friends, comforting her, helping her, being there for her. Later on in life, some of her old “friends” got involved in drugs and one even went to jail. So that was one positive – New Friends, which became True Friends. Secondly, she thinks about all the adolescents who fight and argue and rebel against their parents, especially their mothers. If she didn’t have cancer, she could see herself going down that path, but with the cancer, her mother became her primary care giver, and they developed a close bond that continues to this day. Because of the faith of her friends and mom, she grew in her faith and dependence on God. Her love for Him grew incredibly. After high school she went to Bible College and then began serving God along with FFHM in the Baja peninsula. Now she is enjoying and glorifying God here in Oaxaca.
Finally, the mission pastor here showed a few short video clips of an incredible man named Nick during his sermon last Sunday. Nick was born without arms or legs. He begged God to heal him, to give him arms and legs, as a boy. He wanted to be normal, like all the other boys. God didn’t give him arms and legs. He begged God for a reason why He made him so different from everyone else. He tried to commit suicide in the bathtub at age eight. He wasn’t successful, partly because he thought of the great love his parents had for him, and how bad they would feel if he killed himself. Finally he came to the realization that God loved him and wanted him to be happy. On the video clips he looked like one of the happiest people I have ever seen, as he travels the world telling people that God loves them and gave his Son for them, so that, they too, could be full of joy, peace and purpose.
Ultimately all Christians are healed. Sometimes they are healed by a supernatural touch from God. A lot of times they are healed by the bodies natural healing process. Other times they are healed by medicines and doctors. If they die, they are risen to new, healthy lives, living in the immediate presence of our loving heavenly Father. One way or another, we all experience healing, the whole healing, and nothing but the healing, so, thank you God!
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It is not the miraculousness of God’s acts that constitutes their significance, it is their redeeming and informing and instructing content. God’s miraculous activity is not against nature but against sin. A miracle is not an abnormal or unnatural occurrence presupposing the normality of nature, but a redeeming reinstatement of the normality of world and life through the new dominion of God, which stands antithetically against the kingdom of this world. Miracles cause surprise because people have become accustomed to the abnormality of sin and its curse of death and terror. Terrance Tiessen in Providence and Prayer
In sermon after sermon I’ve been told that I need to be like Abraham, Moses, king David and the apostle Paul. In other words, extra-ordinary. After hearing these sermons I initially feel encouraged and challenged to do great things for God. But then I feel discouraged, inadequate and guilty because I don’t do great things for God. I am not an Abraham, Moses, David or Paul. I’m just an ordinary kinda Christian who likes to garden. I’m just an average guy who likes to teach and write a little bit on the side. I’m just a regular man who loves his wife and children and enjoys God and His good gifts. Nothing real special in all that. Nothing radical or extra-ordinary. Just an ordinary guy trying to love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. Just a follower of Christ who wants to love my neighbor as myself and do unto others as I would like them to do unto me.
I’m OK with that. More importantly, God is OK with that. Nowhere in the Bible does God tell us to be like Abraham, Moses, David or Paul, or any one else for that matter, except Christ. We are to imitate Christ in humility and love. Jesus never says, “Be like me.” He does say, “If you love me, keep my commands” (John 14:15), and “If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:10-12). Our joy is not complete if we try to be more like Abraham. We are not happier if we try to be more like David. We do not live contented lives by trying to imitate David. WE ENJOY GOD more when we are being the person that He created us to be. Love is the keyword to being that person. Jesus said the two greatest commandments are “Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength; and Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37,38). What does that kind of love look like? In the sermon on the mount, Jesus told the crowd, “Treat others as you want to be treated” (Matthew 7:12).
I thank God for people who do do great things for God. Who are so full of love for God and their fellow man, that they
Jill with her children, Salina and Nathan
accomplish incredible things in the name of Jesus. They create opportunities for average, ordinary Christians like me to use my God given gifts to enjoy and glorify God and make a difference in other ordinary peoples lives. Two names come to mind. One is Bill Hybels. Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, one of the largest churches in the United States. Maybe you have heard of him. Most of you have probably not heard of Jill Adams. Jill Adams was a member of Willow Creek and also worked on staff there for awhile. The ministry of Bill Hybels and Willow Creek Church touched her life in a significant way. Now she is one of the leaders here at the Home For Needy Children in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has also adopted two Mexican children. She is just an ordinary lady who loves God and loves others. Bill Hybels greatness opened spiritual and physical doors for Jill to grow into the person God created her to be.
Another person who has done, and continues to do great things for God, is Charla Pereau, founder of Foundation For His Ministry which operates four Homes For Needy Children in Mexico and touches thousands of lives every year with its outreach programs to the poorest of the poor. Because she has faithfully followed God, she has become the kind of person God created her to be, a person who does great things for God. And that opens doors for people like me to be the ordinary kinda Christian God created me to be, doing gardening, teaching English, and helping children. It opens doors for people like Fabian and Carmen. He is a Mexican. She is a North American.They met at FFHM’s children home in Baja, Mexico, got married, and are now leaders here at the Oaxaca mission. Fabian is the administrator and Carmen works in the elementary school here. They too, have adopted a poor, Mexican baby. Because of the great faith of Charla, Fabian and Carmen are able to use their gifts to better the lives of the poor, oppressed and downcast here in Mexico.
That’s God’s general plan. He calls Abraham who becomes a great man, a patriarch of the faith, who had millions of ordinary descendants who carried on the faith. God calls Moses, who becomes a great leader of the Hebrews and leads them out of Egyptian bondage. Millions of ordinary people are set free to learn about and worship the One, True God. God calls David, an ordinary shepherd, and makes him an extraordinary King, who turns ordinary people into ordinary soldiers who do ordinary things that make a great kingdom. God calls Paul, an extraordinary sinner, and transforms him into a great apostle, who started lots of churches, made up of ordinary people who learned about a God who loved them and wanted them to be happy, and then began loving their neighbors and making them happy. He wrote half the New Testament and his God inspired ,great writing, has changed ordinary peoples lives for almost 2,000 years.
With God, Ordinary is the Norm; Greatness is Abnormal. As Christians we rejoice in both. We rejoice that when we open our hearts and lives to God’s will, we become the kind of person that He created us to be. We rejoice in greatness and we should also rejoice in the ordinary.
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Only God knows your full potential, and he is guiding you toward that best version of yourself all the time. He has many tools and is never in a hurry. That can be frustrating for us, but even in our frustration, God is at work to produce patience in us. He never gets discouraged by how long it takes, and he delights every time you grow. Only God can see the “best version of you,” and he is more concerned with you reaching your full potential than you are. John Ortberg in The Me I Want To Be
I made up a new song a couple days ago. It’s called I’m So Glad I’m Not a Worm. It’s sung to the tune of Everybody Ought to Know. 
It goes like this:
I’m So glad I’m not a Worm
I’m So glad I’m not a Worm
I’m So glad I’m not a Worm
Eating dirt all day.
It was originally called I’m So Glad I’m not a Dog. It came to me as I was taking a pail of table scraps out to the compost pit at the back of the mission. As I approached, three mongrel dogs crawled out of the pit and scampered away. I thought how glad I was that I wasn’t a dog like that, and began singing, “I’m so glad I’m not a dog.” As I thought about those words, I realized that there are probably some people in the world that would like to be dogs, especially a pet dog in the United states. Most pet dogs in the U.S. have it made. They have all the comforts of home. They live better than most people in the world. I read recently that in 2012, Americans spent over 53 billion dollars on their pets, a large majority of those pets being dogs. I read a mission web site that said that Americans spent as much money on their pets Halloween costumes as they did on helping to send the gospel message to the unreached people groups of the world (310 million dollars). It’s a dog’s life, and it’s a pretty good one. So I changed the words to I’m So Glad I’m not a Worm. Although I expect to receive a scathing email any day now from the NAAW (National Association for the Advancement of Worms).
What I am really saying when I sing “I’m so glad I’m not a worm” is that I am glad that I am a chosen, elected, predestined from the foundations of the earth, child of God, who daily experiences the riches of God’s love, mercy, grace, kindness, gentleness, goodness and provision of all my daily needs and most of my wants because He Loves Me and wants me to be happy. Much better than being a worm. Although, maybe I am a worm at heart, or used to be.
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Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?
At The Cross by Isaac Watts
Have you ever peeled five dozen hard boiled eggs at one time? I hadn’t before this morning. My wife, Anita, and I cooperate
with God at a home for needy children in Oaxaca, Mexico. Anita is a cook. She was preparing lunch for about 100 children and staff members. Normally she has some help with this task, and normally I am working outside with landscape concerns. This morning she was alone in the kitchen, and it was raining outside, so I helped her. One item on the menu was potato salad, and my job was to peel the hard boiled eggs, all 60 of them. At first it was kinda fun. Then it just didn’t seem so bad. After that it became frustrating. Finally, I ended up talking to the eggs.
“Hey Shelly, why can’t you be more like Eggbert? His shell came off lickety split, and yours is taking forever!”
“Yoko and Sheldon – A little help here, huh? You are definitely not part of the potato salad dream team!”
And so it went. I noticed it had stopped raining. Maybe I could slip out into the garden and do something interesting like dig a drainage ditch or shovel compost, anything but peel eggs. But I stayed and helped Anita finish the potato salad, baked chicken and pasta soup, because I love her and want her to be happy; kinda the way God feels about us.
Struggling with the sticky egg shells, I began thinking about perspective. I realized there is a right and wrong perspective to have about everything, even peeling eggs. A correct and incorrect way of looking at things in life. Perspectives that can make our existence happier or sadder; joy filled or filled with frustration. That’s why God gave us His Word. He created us and He tells us the proper way to look at situations. Outlooks that improve outcomes. He not only gives us His Word, but puts the Holy Spirit in us to work out His will and His way. Paul prayed that the “heart eyes” of the Ephesians (chapter one) would be enlightened. It is our “enlightened heart eyes” that gives us wisdom, revelation and knowledge. Paul is praying that the Ephesian Christians would be able to see situations the same way their Savior does. Jesus never sinned, because He always had perfect perspective, wisdom, revelation and knowledge about all situations that faced Him. With His perspective guiding us, we will be a lot further down the road to glorifying God by enjoying Him and this life He has given us.
Thinking God’s Thoughts After Him
I took a theology class in college. The professor defined theology as “thinking God’s thoughts after Him.” I think that is a great definition, and more than that, a goal of my life. When I read and study His Word, then I find myself thinking more “God thoughts” and less James Schwab thoughts. Less negative thoughts enter my head, pushed at me by the world, the flesh and the devil. Paul says to the Corinthians,”we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). When I think God’s thoughts after Him, I take errant thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ.
Paul wrote to the Philippians that they should do “everything without grumbling or arguing” so that they could become blameless and pure, children of God, without fault in a crooked and warped generation (Phil. 2:14). He says to the Colossians, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body, you were called to peace. And be thankful“, “doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col 3:15,17).
So what’s behind peeling hard boiled eggs? What’s the inner perspective I need to have to affect my outward behavior positively? Don’t grumble. Don’t argue. Let the peace of Christ rule in my heart as I give thanks. Give thanks for a delicious meal that I helped prepare. Give thanks that over 100 children and staff members got a hot, nutritious lunch. Give thanks that it has stopped raining and back to the garden I go!
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Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.
As part of Jesus conclusion to the sermon on the Mount, he says “Enter through the narrow gate….small is the gate and 
narrow is the path that leads to life, and only a few find it.” I read those words of Christ and began to ponder what it was that Jesus wanted his hearers to take away as they headed back down the mountain to their homes. I wondered what Jesus wanted me to learn from this statement as I was about to begin my day of work at the home for needy children in Oaxaca,Mexico. I couldn’t quite get a handle on it, so I gave up and went outside to begin my day.
The first thing that I encountered was a big mess of fruit and vegetables that needed to be cleaned up. Somebody made a mess and I needed to clean it up. I was upset. Inwardly I began to grumble and complain. It’s not right. It’s not fair. I began to think bad of the brother who had made the mess. I began to judge him. Then it hit me. I was not entering the narrow gate that leads to life, but was trundling down the broad road that leads to destruction. My negative attitude had destroyed my peace and joy. In a way I had destroyed my brother in my mind. I felt God saying to me, “Get with it and go through the narrow gate!”
Doesn’t Come Naturally
Now I was beginning to understand. Entering the narrow gate means going against what comes naturally, and following the principles that Jesus had been laying down in his sermon. Principles of having a kingdom heart. Principles like not judging; forgiving; loving those who do wrong. Jesus was saying that it is easy to follow the flesh and do what comes naturally – that is what the crowd is doing who enter the wide gate and go down the broad road that leads to destruction.
The last story he gives us in his sermon is the well known story of the wise builder and the foolish builder. In his introduction to this parable Jesus says, “everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock.” Jesus could just as well as said that everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who entered through the narrow gate.
What are some of the other words that Jesus said that we need to put into practice? Other things we need to do to enter through the narrow gate?
Jesus said don’t be angry with your brother. Don’t lust. Don’t do acts of righteousness to be seen by people so that you will be honored. He said his disciples are to love their enemies and pray for those that persecute you. He said to turn the other cheek and give to those that ask and go the extra mile. He said we are to treat others like we want to be treated. These are not easy things, but are marks of a true disciple with a kingdom heart who strives to enter the small gate and go down the narrow path.
Does God Really Want Us To Be Happy?
If we really believe that God is good and that He loves us and wants us to be happy, then we needn’t worry about anything. At the end of Matthew chapter six, Jesus teaches his disciples that not worrying is part of what it means to enter through the narrow gate. Jesus said, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.” He goes on to say that your Heavenly Father feeds the birds and dresses the flowers and you are more valuable than they are. People without Christ in their lives worry about many things; get stressed out at work and home, and are headed down the broad path toward destruction. Worry and stress destroys a persons health, mental outlook, happiness and relationships. Trusting God to meet our physical and spiritual needs leads to health, happiness and life.
Everyone wants to be happy. C.S. Lewis writes that God desires our happiness more than we ourselves desire to be happy. God has provided explicit, written instructions on how to be happy in the Manual of Life called the Bible. Those who enter the wide gate that leads to unhappiness and destruction disregard God’s Word. Those who love God and trust him and put into practice His principles found in the Bible enter through the narrow gate that leads to life. C.S. Lewis writes, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Jesus put the question to the crowd and to his disciples, are you going to be wise and put what you have just heard me preach into practice, or are you going to be foolish and ignore what I have just said? Are you going to enter through the narrow gate that leads to life, or continue going down the broad path that leads to destruction?
I ask in the vain of C.S. Lewis, are we going to happily make mud pies the rest of our lives, or are we going to make sand castles by the sea?
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The narrow gate is not, as so often assumed, doctrinal correctness. The narrow gate is obedience – and the confidence in Jesus necessary to it. We can see that it is not doctrinal correctness because many people who cannot even understand the correct doctrines nevertheless place their full faith in him. Moreover, we find many people who seem to be very correct doctrinally but have hearts full of hatred and unforgiveness. The broad gate, by contrast is simply doing whatever I want to do. Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy
FOCUS ON GOD
It seems to me that because God loves us and wants us to be happy, that when we go to church we should focus on Him. We should thank Him, glorify Him, and honor Him. Our attention should be on God. But if you think about the words in most of the songs we sing, the attention and focus is mainly on us. Particularly me, myself and I. “Here I am to worship”. “I surrender all.” “Above all, He thought of me.” When I go to church, I don’t want to think about me. I want to think first of all about God and His mercy, grace, love, power, kindness, compassion, gentleness and presence. Secondly, I want to focus on the community of faith around me, the called out ones. God brings us together as the family of God, and its proper for us as a community to worship and adore Him with songs and words that reflect our togetherness; words like “us” and “we” and “our”, rather than “me”, “myself” and “I”.
ONE DAY LESS
It seems to me that everyday we should thank God for one day LESS. A lot of Christians thank God everyday for one day more. One day more to enjoy God. One day more of life. One day more to live for God. While that is all good, I think it’s better to think about the best – and the best thing that will happen to us is that one day we will see God face to face. We will be in His immediate presence, engulfed in His love, free from this world and its sin and pain and suffering. Each day we live is one day less until we are with God. Paul says in Philippians one, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain….I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.” In the second chapter of Peter’s second letter, he describes the awful wicked world that we live in. In the following chapter, Peter writes, “You ought to live holy and godly lives as you LOOK FORWARD to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise, we are LOOKING FORWARD to a new heaven and new earth, where righteousness dwells.” Sounds like Peter and Paul were thanking God for one day LESS.
IT’S IN OUR HANDS
It seems to me that everyday we should thank God for putting the day in OUR hands. I hear a lot of Christians telling God that they are going to put the day in His hands. I don’t quite understand that because everything is in God’s hands, including the days. As far as I can see, the real miracle, the real special thing, is that God puts the day in OUR hands, and gives us the freedom to use it as we see fit. We can use it for good or bad; for blessing or cursing; for making the world a better place or worse place; to bring beauty and productivity into the kingdom, or ugliness and destruction. God has put the day into OUR hands, and it seems to me we should thank God for that and seek His guidance for the best way to use the day to glorify and honor Him.
LIVE IN THE CHURCH
It seems to me that Christians should not live in the world and go to church, but that we should live in the Church and go into the world. God calls us into a community of faith, into the Body of Christ. We best flesh out our “personal relationship” with God, within the framework of fellowship within the Church. God doesn’t want no “Lone Ranger” Christians who don’t participate in a Christian Community. “Lone Ranger” Christians who want to live in the world and occasionally go to church. No, God calls us to follow Him as a body, as a group of disciples whom He sends out into the world to be salt and light; to be healers and helpers; to be pro-claimers of the Good News that God is inviting people into the Kingdom of God.
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In the plan of the Great Dance plans without number interlock, and each movement becomes in its season the breaking into flower of the whole design to which all else has been directed. Thus each is equally at the center and none are there by being equals, but some by giving place and some by receiving it, the small things by their smallness and the great things by their greatness, and all the patterns linked and looped together by the unions of a kneeling with a sceptred love. Blessed be He! C.S. Lewis in Perelandra
Receiving Good Gifts
I have received a lot of good gifts lately. Different groups come to Foundation For His Ministry’s home for needy children here in Oaxaca,Mexico to give. They give generously of their time, talents, and treasure. Recent groups gave a lot of time in helping me to prepare an area for the planting of a soccer field. They gave of their treasure in buying dresses and books for my daughters, peanut butter and brown sugar for my wife, and an umbrella for me. Janelle, who works in the main office in San Clemente, California, visited the mission with Charla Pereau, the founder of FFHM, this week. She knows I like magazines and the Civil War, and brought me super gift. She brought me a National Geographic magazine all about the Civil War. Perhaps the best gift that I, and all the staff members received, was a moving speech by the talented speaker, Charla, who just turned 81, and may have made her last trip to Oaxaca,Mexico.
A successful basketball coach once said something to the effect that it is a good day if you do three things; think, laugh and cry tears of joy. Going along with that idea, I think someone gives a great talk if it makes me think, laugh and cry. Every time Charla speaks publicly I do all three, and this time was no exception. I thought deeply about FFHM’s commitment to making disciples as Charla spoke about the Mission Statement. I laughed heartily when she told about her conversion to Christianity as a young lady, and how she ran home and exclaimed to her father that she was going to do great things for God. He told her that God didn’t need her help! Then she told her mom that she was going to do great things for God. Her mom told her that she could begin by making her bed! Finally, tears of sadness rolled down my face as she described her first visit to a Mexican garbage dump and told of the pitiful situation of children living there, scrounging around for food and stuff that they could possibly sell for a few pesos. Then I cried tears of joy as she shared with us that the first group of kids to live at the home for needy children that her and her friends created, were rescued from a garbage dump in Ensenada, Mexico.
Charla’s Family With My Family
More Blessed to Give Than To Receive
Jesus talked about giving good gifts. In the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 7:9-12), Jesus asked a question. When your child asks for a piece of bread, do you give him a stone? If your child asks for a fish, do you give her a snake? Obviously no. Jesus continues by saying that though we are evil, we know how to give good gifts to our children. How much more will our heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him!
Our eyes light up at the prospect of getting good gifts from our heavenly Father. He gives the best gifts! He gives the most gifts! He gives great gifts! He loves us and wants us to be happy! One of the best gifts our Father gives us is the ability to give good gifts to others. In Acts 15:35 Paul says that Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” The word “blessed” can be translated “happy”. Jesus is saying that you will be happier when you give good gifts than when you receive good gifts. Jesus goes on to say, in the Sermon on the Mount, that in “everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” If we like to receive good gifts, we need to give good gifts.
A-S-K
But we need to A-S-K. Ask, Seek, Knock. Jesus said in Matthew 7:7,8, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be open to you.” In context, I believe one of the things Jesus is telling us to do, is to Ask God what good gifts can we give today, and to whom. Then we Seek to find the ways and means to implement the giving of the gift. Finally we Knock, which is the actual giving of the gift. For example, one day I was asking God what else he wanted me do here as part of the ministry in Oaxaca. I sensed that he wanted me to teach English and share the Gospel at the prison across the street. So I asked and received an answer. Next was to seek. I had to seek permission from the administrator of the home for needy children here, then I had to seek permission from the prison warden, then I had to seek curriculum that I could use to teach ESL (English as a second language). I did the seeking and found what I needed to proceed. Next was to Knock. The day finally came when I stood before the huge metal doors of the prison and actually knocked on it. A prison guard opened the door and I went to the classroom and gave the good gift of English and the Gospel.
Good gifts. It makes us happy to receive them, and even happier to give them. Let’s glorify God today by asking our Father what gifts we should take out of our bag of Time, Talents and Treasure and give away. Let’s seek what we need to implement the giving. Finally, Give the Good Gift! Knock on the door of someones’ room, someone’s house, or someone’s heart and GIVE.
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Foundation for His Ministry is a mission whose purpose is to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus Christ. To this end we share and demonstrate God’s love through the power of the Holy Spirit by meeting basic spiritual, physical and educational needs of those in Mexico and beyond. This will be done in such a way as to establish the Mission as a model of effective ministry for other parts of the world. Mission statement of Foundation For His Ministry
What do you do in secret? What do you do when nobody is looking? In your private time when you are alone? Jesus told his followers that our heavenly Father sees what is done in secret and that he will make it known (“For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” Luke 8:17). How does this make you feel? It makes me want to celebrate!
I have been reading Matthew 6 for the last week. Jesus is teaching his disciples and the crowd in his famous Sermon on the Mount. He talks a lot about our “secret time” in chapter 6. He is talking about practicing righteousness. He tells the people, “Don’t practice righteousness to be seen by people. Do your acts of righteousness secretly.” What are the acts of righteousness that he is referring to? Giving to the needy, prayer and fasting.
Giving to the needy
There are many ways that we can give to the needy. We can give money. We can give of our time. We can give our talents or skills. Jesus said that when we give of our time, talents and treasure to help those in need, that our right hand should not know what our left hand is doing. What did Jesus mean by this? How can our right hand not know what our left hand is doing? That’s easy. It happens all the time. When we sit down to eat a meal we don’t consciously tell our right hand to pick up the fork and stab a piece of broccoli and put it in our mouth. It happens naturally without much, if any, thought. And after eating the broccoli, we don’t proclaim to those around us what a good deed we have just done (unless we are little children who hate broccoli and want our parents to be proud of us for performing such a disagreeable task). It should be just as natural for disciples of Christ to give money to the down and out, or to volunteer at a homeless shelter, or to change the oil in the car of a struggling single mother. It’s nothing to boast or brag about, unless we have such a childish faith, that we crave the attention of people more than the reward of our heavenly Father. Jesus tells us the Father, the Unseen See-er, sees what we give, and will reward us. Those who boast about what they have given and receive praise from people have gotten their reward.
Prayer
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray … to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.” Jesus was talking to the crowd about how to pray and how not to pray. Here he is telling people that when you pray to your Father, pray to HIM! Talk to HIM! Don’t pray to your ego. Don’t pray to impress people. Don’t pray to preach at people. Pray to communicate to God.
How is this best accomplished? Jesus continues, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” If we want to be rewarded by our Father who is in heaven, by answered prayers, intimacy with God, contentment, fulfillment, joy and peace, then we need to do our praying in secret; in silence and solitude.
Jesus says you don’t need to make long prayers, to inform God of your needs; to go into great detail about your aches and pains; your work situation; family matters; emotional turmoil; spiritual disappointments; struggles with sin and the like. Jesus says in his introduction to the Lord’s Prayer, that God already knows our needs. He is not in the dark about your situation, just waiting for you to spill your guts so that he will understand what you are going through. When he gives us the Lord’s Prayer as a model prayer, he purposely kept it short. He knows our needs, and simply wants us to acknowledge our needs before him, and depend on him and trust him, believing that he is good and that his love endures forever. Having confidence in him that he loves us and wants us to be happy, and that he will do the right thing. We do all this, if we are obedient to Christ, in SECRET.
Fasting
I don’t fast a lot. It’s not my strongest spiritual practice. I’m somewhat relieved that Jesus didn’t tell us that we need to fast. He just told people, that if they choose to fast, that they shouldn’t make a big deal about it. It is easy to make a big deal about it in our culture. If you want to impress people with your spirituality, tell them that you going without food for a meal, or two or three, in order to get closer to God. That will get their attention. We love our food. We don’t just have three squares a day, but we usually graze in between meals with all manner of snacks. So giving up food for a while,for spiritual growth, is a big deal, worthy of a reward.
But where do you want your reward to come from? From the praises and adulation of people who are impressed with your spiritual practice? That can be good for your ego, but what about your soul? God gives you a choice, you can receive your reward for fasting from friends and family, by letting them know what you are doing, or you can receive a reward from the Unseen See-er, our heavenly Father, who wants to bless our socks off with rewards, if we keep fasting our little secret, a little secret between me and God – between you and God.
So, do you have a secret? Do you do things in secret that nobody knows about? Things that you prefer to keep under wraps? I hope so. I hope it’s Giving to the needy, Prayer, and Fasting. Sometimes the rewards for doing things in secret are material, physical, or spiritual during our life here on earth. Sometimes the rewards are out of this world! I think that when we get to heaven, God will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And then God will reveal to us, and to the multitudes in heaven, what we did for Him on earth, in secret, and how that made a difference in peoples lives. What a reward that will be!
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The one who gives without regard to who is looking and does not even notice it as anything special themselves, no “big deal”, is the very one who has God’s attention and becomes God’s creative partner in well-doing. He or she will know the fellowship of God and see the effects of these deeds multiplied for good in the power of God. Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy
The staff at Cristo Por Su Mundo (Christ for the World), a home for needy children here in Oaxaca, Mexico, which is part of FoundationFor His Ministry, recently began a five day study of what it means for Christians to live in community. I felt like this was an important topic for us to delve into, since we are a faith community with almost two dozen staff members and sixty children, and we had never had an in-depth study of what the Bible or Christian leaders have to say about this important topic.
A book that has heavily influenced my perspective on Christian community, is called Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I took the first devotional/teaching session to present Bonhoeffer’s ideas of what living in community is all about.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian, professor and pastor when Hitler was in power. He was ultimately executed by Hitler for his anti Hitler activities. He was head of a Christian community in Germany for awhile and wrote his little book Life Together to help other Christians who lived in community or who were considering the idea.
In our first devotional study time I handed out two pages of quotes from Life Together. Here are some of my favorites:
The goal of Christian community – Meeting one another as bringers of the message of salvation.
Be thankful – Enter into common life not as demanders but as thankful recipients.
Jesus Christ alone is our unity – Through him alone do we have access to one another, joy in one another, and fellowship with one another.
Priorities – It is more important for us to know what God did to Israel, to his son Jesus Christ, than to seek what God intends for us today.
Learning – Only in fellowship do we learn to be rightly alone and only in aloneness do we learn to live rightly in the fellowship; both begin with the call of Christ.
Meditation – The period of personal meditation is to be devoted to the scriptures, private prayer, and intercession. If you seek God alone, you will gain happiness.
Meekness – He who would learn to serve must first learn to think little of himself.
Helpfulness – We must allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly canceling our plans by sending us people with needs that we can meet.
Jill, the assistant administrator of the children’s home also spoke about living in community. She looked at community from a theological point of view. She used the book called Community 101 as her guiding light. This book talked about how community began with God, the Trinity, three in one, the first community. Then God created Adam, and God declared that it was not good that man was alone. Man was created to live in community, and God created Eve, from one of Adams ribs. Thus the first human community.
Satan hates all things that God creates as good and beautiful, and seeks to destroy them, especially community. His first attack was against community. An essential element of community between God and man, and mankind living in community, is trust. Satan attacks community by attacking trust. He convinced Eve that God could not be trusted, and thus destroyed the perfect community that man had with God, and in the process, the community Adam and Eve had. Satan continues to try and destroy Christian community, and those living in community must be ever vigilant regarding their thoughts, words and actions, lest the Evil One drive a wedge between its members.
Below are some quotes from Community 101:
Primacy of oneness – God is eternally one. When he created us in his image, he created oneness.
God’s gift of oneness – God’s supreme achievement was not the creation of solitary man, but the creation of human community.
Centrality of oneness – The quality of human communities depends on our willingness to be dependent on God.
Commitment to community – For a church to develop and maintain oneness is not a take-it-or-leave-it option. It is a priority and a mandate. We need to be constantly reminded of our true identity as a community of oneness.
God calls us to have a “personal relationship” with Him. But that is not the end all and be all of what it means to be a Christian. God brings us into right relationship with Him, so that we can be part of the “called out ones”; the church; the community of faith; the body of Christ. God created community because He loves us and wants us to be happy. I know that is true for me. Although I have gone to church most of my life, and been a member of different churches, and done church for most of 50 years, I have not experienced such joy and happiness and fulfillment since I became part of this Christian community in Mexico called Cristo Por Su Mundo. Instead of “doing” church, we are “being” the church that God called His followers to be.
Thinking on this, I am reminded of the breakfast illustration of ham and eggs. In the making of this breakfast the chicken was involved, but the pig was committed. Most Christians are involved in a Christian community, living at the fringes of what God truly intends for His disciples. I think God wants all His children to take the plunge, and commit to living in community. That is the way He wired us in order to truly glorify Him by enjoying Him.
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There are many things which a person can do alone, but being a Christian is not one of them. As the Christian life is, above all things, a state of union with Christ, and of union of his followers with one another, love of the brethren is inseparable from love of God. Resentment toward any human being cannot exist in the same heart with love to God. The personal relationship to Christ can only be realized when one has “come to himself” as a member of His Body, the Christian fellowship.
William T. Ham
When you think of a ruler, a person of power, who comes to mind? How about when you think of a shepherd? What images come to mind. The thoughts that come to mind when we think of Rulers and Shepherds are normally at both ends of the human spectrum. When we think of Rulers, we think of kings, presidents, dictators and prime ministers. When we consider what a Shepherd is, we think of humility, kindness, gentleness and meekness. Not normally qualities found in most Rulers.
Wouldn’t it be great, if a ruler governed like a shepherd, or if a shepherd had the power to rule? I think so, and thankfully, the combination of the two is not just wishful thinking. I have started to read the book of Matthew recently. In chapter two we have the story of the Magi, the Wise Men, traveling to Jerusalem in search of the one “born kind of the Jews.” This gets King Herod’s attention. He doesn’t like the idea of any competition to his vaulted position. He calls together the religious leaders and teachers together and asks them where the Messiah, the Anointed One, the great King, is to be born. They tell King Herod and the Magi, that the scriptures prophesy that the New King is to be born in Bethlehem. The prophet Micah had foretold hundreds of years earlier that out of Bethlehem will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.
When I read that, I smiled and thought “Wlhat a great idea. A Ruler who Shepherds.” Then I thought about Bethlehem, otherwise known as the City of David. David was born in Bethlehem. David was a shepherd who became a great ruler. David wrote the 23rd Psalm describing the LORD as a shepherd, who leads His flock to green pastures and still waters. Who protects His flock with His rod, much as David had done when he killed a lion and a bear who tried to harm his sheep. This Shepherd David became the great King David, a man after God’s own heart.
Now we hear the good news of a King which is to be born who will rule his people like a shepherd. King Herod had no intentions of ruling his people like a shepherd. Hearing the prophecy of Micah, he was plotting to kill the new born king. He sent the Magi on their way to Bethlehem with the instructions that when they found the baby king, they were to send word to him, so that he too could go and worship the newborn king. The Magi found the child, were overjoyed and worshiped Him. They did not, however, tell King Herod, as they were warned in a dream not to. When the Magi did not report back, the wicked King Herod ordered the slaughter of all boys two years old and younger in Bethlehem. Not much gentleness and kindness in that act.
Later on in His life, Jesus lamented the lack of shepherding qualities in the secular and religious leaders of Isreal. In the 
Gospel of Mark, chapter 6, we read that “when he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.” One of the most important things that Jesus taught the people in the Gospel of John is that He is the Good Shepherd.
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the ultimate, supreme Ruler, gave His life for His sheep. The Good Shepherd died, so that we might live. Then He rose from the dead, rose to heaven in glory, and now rules His people with the heart of a shepherd, because He loves us and wants us to be happy.
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The picture of God as Shepherd demands a God who cares. Being a Shepherd is about caring. The motivation for God’s care is his goodness. Allan Coppedge, from his book, Portraits of God
To Enjoy God 